French President Macron: A Foolish Sun King

Posted: 3/4/2019

Just saw that French President Macron released a bizarre statement on Europe titled “For European renewal” (see here). I did not have to read the whole thing as the opening paragraphs reveal him to be a complete fool. This pamphlet is full of horrible statements becoming of a hegemon and statist! His command of European history is at a shockingly low level!

In the opening paragraphs he expresses his views on the Brexit! Macron reveals his complete lack of understanding of the Brexit! It is shocking!

His pamphlet reeks of naivete, paternalism, nanny state, statism, centralism, hegemonism etc. This is an attempt to apply French dirigisme (Soviet style central planning) to the whole of Europe! Hope, the European citizens will reject this soundly and wholeheartedly!

Funny, when the reincarnated Sun King talks about free trade he sounds like Trump! What an irony!

Some salient excerpts from Macron’s pamphlet (emphasis added):

1. “Europe is not a second-rank power. Europe in its entirety is a vanguard: it has always defined the standards of progress. In this, it needs to drive forward a project of convergence rather than competition: Europe, where social security was created, needs to introduce a social shield for all workers, east to west and north to south, guaranteeing the same pay in the same workplace, and a minimum European wage appropriate to each country and discussed collectively every year”
2. “The European model is based on the freedom of man and the diversity of opinions and creation. Our first freedom is democratic freedom: the freedom to choose our leaders as foreign powers seek to influence our vote at each election. I propose creating a European Agency for the Protection of Democracies ...”
3. “... spearheading the ecological cause. Will we be able to look our children in the eye if we do not also clear our climate debt? The European Union needs to set its target – zero carbon by 2050 and pesticides halved by 2025 – and adapt its policies accordingly with such measures as a European Climate Bank to finance the ecological transition, a European food safety force to improve our food controls and, to counter the lobby threat”
4. “... We need to reform our competition policy and reshape our trade policy with penalties or a ban in Europe on businesses that compromise our strategic interests and fundamental values such as environmental standards, data protection and fair payment of taxes ...”
5. “Progress and freedom are about being able to live from your work: Europe needs to look ahead to create jobs. This is why it needs not only to regulate the digital giants by putting in place European supervision of the major platforms (prompt penalties for unfair competition, transparent algorithms, etc.), but also to finance innovation by giving the new European Innovation Council a budget on a par with the United States in order to spearhead new technological breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence.”
6. “A world-oriented Europe needs to look towards Africa, with which we should enter into a covenant for the future, taking the same road and ambitiously and non-defensively supporting African development with such measures as investment, academic partnerships and education for girls.”
7. “So by the end of the year, let’s set up, with the representatives of the European institutions and the Member States, a Conference for Europe in order to propose all the changes our political project needs, with an open mind, even to amending the treaties. This conference will need to engage with citizens’ panels and hear academics, business and labour representatives, and religious and spiritual leaders.”
8. “In this Europe, the peoples will really take back control of their future. In this Europe, the United Kingdom, I am sure, will find its true place.”

If I am not totally mistaken, not once does Macron mention things like entrepreneurs or businesses or free markets (laissez faire, laissez passez), individual freedom or federalism in his pamphlet!

Most of his statements are so laughable it hurts! One does not even have to comment such utter nonsense! Macron is truly a moron! Macron is an Obama clone!

In July of 2017, I have already blogged that I think the then new French President is a loser (see here).

The European Union Has Failed

Posted: 4/24/2017

This will be a concise, brief post!

The European Union has failed, because:

1. The believe an ever larger European Union (United States of Europe) could become a countervailing power to the U.S. was misguided and delusional from the beginning
2. The super fast enlargement to 28 countries over a span of few decades was daring
3. Too many major European agreements were seriously violated in order to continue and without repercussions and regret
4. The monetary union and single market was imposed irresponsibly
5. The once so much heralded subsidiarity principles was recklessly abandoned
6. Countries that do not play along have been either bullied or receive vast amounts of money
7. The heavy handed top down approach to form a unitary superstate has reached its limits
8. Historically, the Europe was special because of its enormous variety and the many competing powers from city states to nation states. This important lesson was ignored
9. What did I forget?

On An Interview With James L. Buckley

Posted: 8/10/2014

Trigger

The wall street journal published an interview with him on 8/2/2014, see here.

Takeaways

Selected excerpts and comments (emphasis added):

1. “He [Buckley] has kept busy in retirement, thinking and writing about the dangers of an ever-expanding federal government. He notes that at the beginning of the New Deal, the U.S. Code, the entire body of federal statutory law, took up a single volume. "At the end of the New Deal, there were three volumes. When I served in the Senate, there were 11 volumes. . . . The one that is called a 2012 edition—they're still printing the volumes—is going to be about 33 or 34 volumes."
   [This is what I call Democracy In Crisis! Too much power centralization; too much control.]
2. “"There are now 235 volumes of regulations that occupy . . . 17 feet of shelf space of six-point or seven-point type." Even unintentional violations can bring criminal penalties, "so that you can now find yourself in jail for violating a statute you would never have any reason to know existed."”
   [This is obviously a form of madness! We urgently need a complete moratorium on any new legislation and regulation in Washington, DC! Every law and regulation on the book should be scrutinized by the U.S. Congress and repealed rather than maintained!]
3. “He [Buckley] attributes a great deal of mischief to Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, the 1937 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the Social Security Act's unemployment-compensation scheme, which is federally designed and funded but administered by the states. The justices adopted a broad interpretation of Congress's power to spend money under the Constitution's General Welfare Clause—"in a manner that utterly subverts what was left of the 10th Amendment," in Mr. Buckley's view.
   The court held that Congress could condition federal funding on states' enactment of laws that met with Washington's approval. These grants-in-aid programs have multiplied. "They started blossoming with Lyndon Johnson," Mr. Buckley says. "There may have been 100, 120 of them at that time. By 1970 there were about 300, with an annual expenditure of $24 billion. There are now over 1,100 of them, with a federal expenditure this current fiscal year [of] $647 billion. So it is now the third-largest category of spending," after entitlements and defense.”
   [Yes, the centralization of power in Washington, DC lastest beginning with the New Deal, but I would even trace it as far back as to the American Civil War,  has radically perverted the U.S. Constitution.
   The other perversion is, of course, the willingness of so many individual states to comply with this unconstitutional regimen and to give up so much sovereignty to the federal government for money!]